Jergal, the Bleak Seneschal

Source: Obedience boons adapted from Faiths of the Forgotten Realms by Pyromaniac Press

Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Domains: Death, Fate (Luck), Knowledge, Law, Repose [Ancestors], Rune, Suffering.
Mysteries: Ancestor, Apocalypse, Bones, Despair, Lore, Occult, Reaper, Succor.
Favored Weapon: Scythe

Jergal is a deity as old as time upon Toril. He is known by many titles — Lord of the End of Everything, Scribe of the Doomed, The Bleak Seneschal, and Protector of the Names of the Dead just to name a few. The Bleak Seneschal in particular refers to his servitude as second-hand to a number of various gods of death, all varied in their intent, portfolio, and morality. The most famous of them would be Myrkul, Cyric, and finally Kelemvor, but it is important to note that Jergal was the true, original god of death in the Forgotten Realms and one of the greatest powers in the days of ancient Netheril.

However, he grew tired of his station over the millenia that preceded the Dead Three seeking to take his throne. This is the point that he decided to willingly surrender his power to the mortals, and divided the portfolios of Death, the Dead, and Tyranny. Jergal came to find that he appreciated the accounting and orderliness that came with watching over the fate of the world, and so he seated himself as the chamberlain to whichever poor soul came to claim the title of god of death. Thus is Jergal no longer the God of the Dead, but rather, he is the steward and usher of souls that pass from this world to the next, and delivers them to the judgement seat of Kelemvor.

Dogma: Each being has an eternal resting place that is chosen for him or her at the moment of creation. Life is a process of seeking that place and eternal rest. Existence is but a brief aberration in an eternity of death. Power, success, and joy are as transitory as weakness, failure, and misery. Only death is absolute, and then only at its appointed hour. Seek to bring order to the chaos of life, for in death there is finality and a fixed state. Be ready for death for it is at hand and uncompromising. Life should be prolonged only when it serves the greater cause of the death of the world.

For Deific Obedience

Obedience: Each day should end with you having recorded the names of any deceased you are made aware of — friend or foe. If sentient beings fall in battle, you should do your best to scribe their their names into your book so that the Seneschal has his record. If you do not personally encounter any dead or fallen in your day’s adventures, then whatever civilization you are in, ask around about any recently deceased, and their next of kin, so that you might go and offer to record the deceased’s name in the book. So long as you’ve at least attempted to keep this record each day, the following day, you gain a +4 sacred (or profane depending on your alignment) bonus to saving throws against death effects.

1: Keeper of Souls (Sp) deathwatch 3/day, gentle repose 2/day, or speak with dead 1/day.
2: A Name Remembered (Su) You can place your hands on a dead creature, a grave, tombstone, memorial, or similar surface, and concentrate for 1 minute. At the end of this time, you are made aware of the name of the person, a fact about its life, and a detail about the deceased’s final moments (these details are determined by the DM). You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to your Widsom bonus (minimum 1).
3: A Name Recorded (Sp) Once per week, you can write the name of a departed person into the Roll of the Dead, sealing away its destiny. This functions similarly to the spell trap the soul when the name of a target creature is spoken aloud, except the name is instead inscribed by you upon a prepared, blessed parchment costing 1,000gp per hit die of the creature targeted (in place of a gem), and the soul is sequestered upon the Fugue Plane at the completion of the inscription. The corpse of the deaceased creature is required to be present, which must not have been previously animated using animate dead or similar means, nor desecrated in any other way. So long as the scroll remains intact, the corpse that was left behind cannot be raised or animated by any means. The creature scribed within the scroll can only be raised or resurrected if the scroll itself is used as the material component for the spell, which consumes the scroll upon the spell’s completion. A person whose soul has been thusly contained, and subsequently released, cannot be subject to this boon again for one month.

For Followers of Jergal

Archetypes and Alternate Class Features: Gravedigger (Investigator), Spirit Walker (Mesmerist),

Specialty Priest: Doomscribe (Doomscribes are few, and are never allowed to adventure by their patron’s requirement, thus they are not a PC class.)

Feats: Aura of Succumbing, Bloodletting, Bolster Undead, Channel Viciousness, Eerie Sense, Fateful Channel, Flagellant, Master of Knowledge, Messenger of Fate, To the Last, Welcome Pain.

Magic Items: Gloves of Bony Power, Pallid Chain, Ruby Blade.

Prestige Classes: Arcane Devotee, Divine Champion, Divine Disciple, Divine Scion (Unchained).

Traits: Accident Resistant, Cheat Death, Corpse Cannibal, Corpse Hunter, Deathspeaker, Demoralizing Presence, Denial of Fate, Eternal Understanding, Honeyed Words, Loreseeker, Lover of the Law, Pain Is Pleasure, Seer of Reality, Spirit Guide, Stabilizing Touch, Thirst for Knowledge, Undead Slayer, Wisdom in the Flesh.

Clergy and Temples

The church of Jergal is small and secretive, a rigidly organized, almost monastic order of scribes known as the Scriveners of Doom. Based largely in lifeless stone mausoleums and dry, dusty crypts, its members spend their days maintaining and extending vast archives of scrolls listing how sentients under their purview passed away and their destination in the afterlife. Most of the Seneschal’s presence is in the shrines of Kelemvor who holds the station Jergal once held himself. Only in Thay, where death is a daily fact of life, has Jergal’s church undergone a small renaissance. A handful of Jergal’s followers still follow the old ways of the Companions of the Pallid Mask, an order whose members specialized in combating or commanding the undead whose existence was not sanctioned by the church or who had proven to be troublesome. It should be said that Jergal’s opinions on matters of undeath do not necessarily line up with those of his current successor; animation of the dead is not wholly frowned upon, in particular when it deals with corpses whose souls have already departed their bodies. In some places, such as a long cloistered temple in Calimport, the creation of undead servants is still a viable trade and a source of experimentation.